Jojolion Chapter 74: 7 Years in and We Still Have No Idea What’s Happening

Can someone clue me in on exactly what’s happening in Jojolion right now? I can’t quite wrap my head around any of this. At this point, it seems like there could either be 20 chapters or 200 chapter left in Jojolion – and I’m excited for every oddball move they throw at us in the latest installment of the long-running Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure… even if describing the current arc out loud sounds like you’re losing your mind.

“So this 3 foot tall elderly man has this magic lego replica of the white house and is trying to flatten this doggy style guy to death…”

The conflict at the center of the current arc in Jojolion is bizarre even by Jojo’s standards. The three-way battle of pressurization that Joubin unleashed upon the cast on behalf of Poor Tom went south for Joubin and his loved ones as Poor Tom’s stand begins to crush everything within its range. While we’re talking about Poor Tom lets just get this out of the way. What the fuck Araki?

Outside of this lovely moment, we’re treated to a few more great sequences over the course of chapter 74.

Joubin definitely steals the show here. The bad boy of Jojolion, Joubin was the front-runner for the “true villain” of part 8 for a good long time. Although he’s repeatedly shown performing antagonistic actions, chapter 74 of Jojolion aims to show Joubin in a far more sympathetic light. He owns up to his mistake with Tsurugi and calmly takes control of the situation by managing a coordinated effort with Tsurugi’s stand.

As both a father and a person Joubin has largely been characterized by his self-centered and oddly immature desires such as extended vacations away from his son, beetle collecting, and that little magic fruit mafia thing. So while his apology to Tsurugi may seem slight, seeing some humility and honesty in a father-to-son interaction is a level of maturity that would have been unimaginable coming from Joubin around the time of his introduction.

Joubin’s not all talk this chapter though. He kicks things up a notch with his absolute madman tactic of setting fire to the entire Higashikata orchard to lure Poor Tom out of hiding. A move that could very much wreck his entire plan, but one that sends Poor Tom sprinting towards them.

As a whole, outside of Joubin and Tsurugi’s scenes, chapter 74 feels like its more focused on setting up some exciting conflicts to come rather than delivering any real pay off on the many story threads currently in play. Much like my thoughts on chapter 104 of Shingeki no Kyojin, it feels like we’re kind of stuck waiting for some big resolutions by the time we’re done with chapter 74.

The Plant Appraiser charging towards the Rokakaka and keeping his cool when faced with a surprise face-to-face with Poor Tom was a nice touch, but overall Josuke and the Plant Appraiser’s conversation before rolling out wasn’t anything special. And to be clear Poor Tom’s appearance under that blanket has been the most upsetting panels of Jojolion to date. The end of chapter 74 certainly promises great things to come, but for now, we’ll have to sit and wait. Hopefully, chapter 75 executes on a lot of these exciting setups.